Reply To: Want to know the difference between us and them?

wow BTguy I almost felt a tear coming up in my left eye, and I for sure felt goosebumps reading what you wrote. THANKS! I needed that chizuk.

I am glad someone else ‘sees’ what I am talking about, as you so eloquently described in further detail the problem that arises out of a simple question such as why, and how it can appear to them as confrontation.I really smiled at your understanding and words at how you put it.

I guess for us there can never really be enough “why”., as we value coming to greater knowledge. Even if it means everything we thought we knew up until that point of enlightenment will mean that everything we thought we knew will have been WRONG. (hence one needs to have humility)

But I liked another point you raised that “I have even found that people with our experiences sometimes inadvertently threaten our own people who cannot accept that we have a certain worldly awareness and insights they dont have…”

I have always wondered this. WHy when I open up about something I saw or know from “the outside” or sharing of an experience that was interesting, they tighten up. I sense they become uncomfortable. I would think they would be like “whoa…this is interesting that someone has a different background experience and is willing to share it with me”. I was raised in a very liberal open minded home and closed mindedness was not valued.

But besides for that, its even a little socially insulting. What is your experience with this?

But one question I have is how can being FFB be use of one’s bechira, when in a sense they were pre-programmed and tuned into the system. WHereas on the other hand a ger or a bal teshuva has discovered the truth on his own. He is then in a sense like Avram discovering Hashem on his own. I pity them. They have no idea what its like to “wake up”.